You probably already knew that diving watches—while certainly acceptable for diving—are marketed just as much for non-divers as they are hardcore divers and military units. The latter explains why. A diving watch as a fashion statement can take all the qualities of a toned, tanned elite diver and incorporate all them into the watch. Who knew that watches could serve such a powerful fashion metaphor?

Up your cool factor

Whether diving watches have fancy movements, triple-time zones or artfully-crafted dials and bezels, you can be sure that they will make a statement about your person. These pieces of wrist-wear are made for both sexes and give nearly anyone that cool, svelte look that only three-piece suits and lace-up Rockports could only fathom doing. Not only are diver watches cool-as-hell, and not only do they go to super-duper great depths in the sea—they also evoke a sense of “action” in their owners.

As far as others are concerned, you’re one that has served in elite military units. You’ve been a paratrooper for the Swiss government, and you’ve been a Navy Seal. You could have looked death in the eye—a killer shark or legendary giant-squid, perhaps—and lived the experience to gloat to tell it.  Talk about cool!

Wenger® Men’s 72328 Battalion II Diver Swiss Watch $125.00

Wenger Battalion Diver Watch N\A Wenger Mens Black Battalion Iii Diver Watch $208.12

Wenger Men’s 72325 Battalion II Diver Swiss Watch $97.94

Form over function—or is it function over form?

As stated before, of course, many diving watches never even come close to open water. People love them because of their attributes. Most do not even understand how those fancy dials, bezels, chronographs and chronometers actually work. And that’s fine, because these watches are marketed to practically everybody—not just the professional diver. Of course, if you wanted to use these deep underwater, most submerse up to 2000 feet quite comfortably and also come with such handy features as rotating bezels that serve as an alarm clock as to when you will run out of oxygen.

There are essentially two varieties of diving watches:

• The attribute type of diving watch is far more about form over function. These are the Blancpains, Panerai’s, Swiss Armies and Rolexes that are meant more for show. Nonetheless, they will usually come with essential diving features such as depth resistance, fancy luminescence and bezels that revolve and rotate.
• The computer variety of diving watches is more-or-less just that: computerized. They rely on sophisticated electronics to aid divers in critical measurements like depth, temperature, air mixture availability, and a myriad of electronic alarms that sound when circumstances are dire. They often feature the ability to even download diving data to a PC or MAC, share it or to just sit there and bask in your accomplishment.

The crème-de-la crème of dive watches

Among the most distinguished, most ruggedly-elegant watches there are a few diving watches that stand-out from the pack:

• Luminox’s Navy Seal Chronograph
• Bulgari’s Diagono Professional’s Scuba
• Blancpain’s “50^th Anniversary Fifty Fathoms” (which will set you back a “miniscule” $13k)
• Oris’s TT1 Divers Regulator 1000m watch
• Tag Heuer’s Aquaracer 2000

Online varieties for all budgets

Okay, yes—those are some fairly high-end diving watches. However, there are brands online that are much, much more affordable. They are also just as handsome and lush as the former brands and models, and can fool practically anyone into believing that the time-piece is a five-figure watch.

MENS WENGER SWISS MILITARY STEEL 20 ATM AQUA DIVER DATE WATCH 79948 $79.95

MENS WENGER SWISS MILITARY STEEL 20 ATM AQUA DIVER DATE WATCH 79947 $69.95

MENS WENGER SWISS MILITARY STEEL 20 ATM AQUA DIVER DATE WATCH 79946 $79.95

Diving watches as Fashion Statements

For many of us, a watch has become an unnecessary luxury. To get us to work on time we can easily turn to our televisions, cellular phones, iPods. In fact it is hard to find a digital device these days that doesn’t tell the time. But for a scuba diver who enters an unforgiving environment and has to time every move down to the last minute, survival quite literally rests on the quality of the dive watch they are wearing. So it is no surprise that many of the most famous Swiss watches built their reputations on the quality of their diving watches. Take Blancpain, an uncompromising producer of mechanical watches that shuns digital electronics. Although its roots date back well over 100 years, its cemented its reputation in the 1950s for specialising in selling dive watches to navies around the world.

The Blancpain Dive Watch

Among the first forces to adopt the Blancpain dive watch was the French navy, which set up a “combat swimming” unit in 1952. Its 50 fathoms waterproof watch went on to become a classic when it was adopted by Jacques Cousteau, the father of modern scuba diving. Towards the end of that decade Blancpain designed a watch to meet an American military specification with special high-visibility hands and a non-magnetic case. It was adopted by the US Navy in 1964. A slightly modified version was later taken into service by the German navy. Unfortunately Blancpain subsequently went bankrupt and was later only saved and resurrected by Jean-Claude Biver, a charismatic and insightful watchmaker who coined the phrase that Blancpain had never made a quartz watch, and never would.

The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner

Another storied Swiss watch maker that staked its reputation on making diving watches that could stand up to the toughest abuse was Rolex. The Rolex Oyster perhaps deserves recognition as the worlds first dive watch. The Rolex Oyster Perpetual Submariner, which went into production in 1953, claimed to be the first watch that was waterproof to 100m. Its popularity soon spread among military and commercial divers because of its reliability and resistance to extreme conditions. Rolex also marketed it cleverly by getting explorers and divers to use it and then featuring them in its advertising campaigns. Among the more gelling publicity stunts the watch was put through was to have one descend to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, one of the deepest parts of the ocean. Even after being exposed to the crushing pressure of water at a depth of 11km below the sea it emerged unscathed. The Rolex Sea Dweller dive watch has also accompanied divers on the deepest recorded dives by humans swimming freely. This, however, was to a depth of little more than 500 meters. It is clear, under these circumstances, that the weak link in the chain is the human diver.

Omega Seamaster

A relative newcomer to the world of Swiss dive watches is the Omega Seamaster. Omega had another claim to fame in that its watch was the first on the moon, but it didn’t want to be left out in the dive to the bottom of the ocean. The seamaster had been around for decades but was really a statement of style rather than a functional tool for divers until the 1970s. Yet now Omega has raised the bar adding a helium release valve to depressurise the watch. It also claimed to have produced the first chronometer that could be used under water.  Many people who want a titanium watch go for one of these, partly because it was made famous by James Bond in the mid 1990s when Mr Biver (yes, he of Blancpain fame) bought the rights from the producers to get 007 to switch away from Rolex. Ever since the Seamaster has been know by many as the 007 watch.

Dive Watch or Computer?

Classical or mechanical dive watches have,  to some extent, been superseded in diving by sophisticated dive computers that monitor and calculate all the minutia related to avoiding getting the bends by staying deep for too long. Yet there is still something beautiful and simple about a mechanical dive watch with a rotating bezel and luminous hands that tells you at a glance how long you’ve been under the water. There is also something comforting about a technology that is tried and tested with little that can go wrong. And even if you don’t dive, owning a Swiss mechanical dive watch is like owning a piece of history.

Safe in the Hands of a Classic Swiss Dive Watch